Wednesday 21 October 2009

Dave Lloyd at the Cambridge Film Festival

This is the final interview from Cambridge. Dave Lloyd is the Chief Technology Officer at Short Fuze - the company that gave us Moviestorm. Dave is something of a visionary, and in this interview he talks about how they've been working hard to realise that vision.
In addition, Dave reveals that there is a character customisation tool under development which will enhance the customisation options available in Moviestorm - this has been one of the most frequently requested features for some time now - so have a listen to this now!

(Again, apologies for all the background noise!)

ERRORS AND OMMISSIONS
Sincere apologies to Sisch... I was presenting the Best Drama category at this year's Ollies (see below) and on this blog I incorrectly said that Saving Grace had won, when in fact it was The Afflicted. Fortunately I got it right on the night!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Roger at the Cambridge Film Festival

Interview number 3 is with Roger Strange-Burlong who is probably best known to the machinima community as one half of the team that presents the Roger and Ken show on Sunday nights on TMOA Radio. (Can you guess which half?)
Roger also hosts the excellent Friday Night Rock Show on TMOA, which I tune into regularly too.
I've been a guest on the R &K show a couple of times, and I decided this was the opportunity to turn the tables and find out a bit more about what makes Roger tick.

To listen, click here.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

A message during the intermission...

OK folks, two more interviews still to come, but I thought I'd take a moment to update what's been going on lately. (Apart from driving my car with four bikes on the roof-rack into an overhead barrier... that was an unhappy day let me tell you!)

BitFilm: well, in the end Clockwork placed 6th out of 15. I was really pleased with that - it's the first time I've ever had a movie in a competition, and I was up against some really strong contenders. If you're into machinima then check out the other entries, and if you're not then what are you reading this drivel for!!!

This week, the big highlight was the first ever Annual Ollie Awards, which was broadcast live on TMOA. The Ollies have been established to recognise the best machinima creations, directors, voice actors et al. The event was hosted by K4 TinMan. I've not heard him before on TMOA, but he did a sterling job of keeping the show moving with his very descriptive commentary. I was priviledged to be announcing the results for Best Drama, which went to Sisch for her astonishing movie Kate Lee's The Afflicted. Sisch went on to collect a total of 10 Ollies! (And Sisch appeared in many other movies as a voice actor, and she even sang in Clockwork)

For my part, I was nominated in four categories, and delighted to win in two; Best Arthouse, and Best Short Form (under 10 minutes). When the winners were announced they were Skyped in to make their acceptance speech. And yes, there were tears! (But not from me, ahem)
There were around 40 people in the chatroom, and it was great to read their comments as the winners were announced. Due to the lag on the audio stream there were a couple of occassions where I saw the congratulatory messages before I actually heard who won, and on the two occassions it was me, Skype rang before I'd actually heard my name read out! The first time I figured that they probably weren't calling to taunt me, so I must have won. It would have been a bit uncomfortable if I was wrong having blurted out my barely comprehensible thank you message!

And today's news is CineManila; I had submitted Clockwork some time ago, and filled out the necessary online form, and then heard nothing. Today, I heard from Sisch that it had been selected, and like BitFilm they're asking people to vote. You need to do the free registration thing again (but that's not too arduous if you get to vote for your favourite movie - right? ;-) )

You can vote for Clockwork and Saving Grace here. (You can also vote for any of the others that you like, if you must... heh!) Just click on Entries, then Short Film to see the submissions.

Right, thanks for reading. And next time it'll be interview #3 from the Cambridge Film Festival...

Friday 9 October 2009

Hugh Hancock at the Cambridge Film Festival

This is the second installment of interviews I grabbed with key people in the machinima industry, while at the Cambridge Film Festival. This time, it's Hugh Hancock, the man responsible for giving us the term "machinima", and the creative force behind one of the most well known machinima titles of all time; Bloodspell.

To listen, click here.

Monday 5 October 2009

Johnnie Ingram at the Cambridge Film Festival

Two weeks ago I went to the Cambridge Film Festival to see the machinima track, which was hosted by Bill Thompson and Hugh Hancock. While I was there I had the opportunity to do audio interviews with some really interesting movers and shakers in the machinima world.
These interviews were aired on the Roger and Ken show on TMOA Radio on 04 October, but if you missed them you can hear them here. I'm going to upload them one at a time over the next few days.

This first piece has a quick two minute intro by me, then it's Johnnie Ingram. He's well known as one of the co-writers of Machinima for Dummies, and is now Product Manager at Short Fuze for Moviestorm.

Apologies for the background noise during the first 10 minutes of the interview... it does get better!

To listen, click here.

Hope you enjoy it!